For much of my life I didn't really care for cities. Although my family travelled a great deal and I had the chance to see much of the world, I always preferred to be "closer to nature". I liked small towns like the ones I had grown up in.
So I was a bit surprised at one point on this last trip to hear myself say to those around me as we drove through Manila, "I love cities." I do? Since when? Along with everyone else in the car I was all ears to hear my explanation on this one. It went a little bit like this...
Natural beauty is incredible. Majestic mountains, rushing streams, trees reaching heavenward... how can concrete, glass and steel compete with that? They don't; a city's beauty is another sort of thing entirely.
A city cannot help but be a reflection of the people who inhabit it. Cities take aspects of culture, of values, of the best of us and the worst of us, and they magnify these things and carve them into stone and concrete. Whatever else a city might be, it is a product of the people who live in it. If there are beautiful spaces in that city, it is because someone took the time and effort to make them beautiful. If the city struggles, it reflects the very human struggles of those who inhabit it.
We had the opportunity to spend time in three cities on this trip: Davao, Manila and Bangkok. Each of these cities has many stories to tell; each has its own character, its own feel. A city is more than its buildings, its parks, its traffic; a city is the people who live there. A city is a celebration of the everyday; smells of food wafting from stalls and restaurants along the street, public transit that runs on time (or doesn't), vendors hawking their wares... a city is all of this and more. To find beauty in the city is to find beauty in God's greatest masterpiece, His most treasured creation, that fragile creature made in His image.
I guess I really do love cities. Huh. Who knew?
Evan
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